The Classic Marvel Storylines We'll Probably See In Phase 4

Ever since the Tesseract was introduced in the Thor post-credits scene and Thanos cameoed at the end of The Avengers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building up to its own version of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, namely with the Mad Titan slowly obtaining the six Infinity Stones. That will culminate in 2018 with Avengers: Infinity War, and elements of the storyline will presumably be touched on in Avengers 4. Once Phase Four hits, though, the door is wide open for a new storyline or two to be used across multiple movies.

While it remains to be seen whether Marvel's Phase Four would use a story that reaches as wide as the Thanos/Infinity Stones arc, we've collected some of the classic storylines/events from the Marvel comics that would fit well on the big screen. Full disclosure, we would love to see the MCU heroes battle Galactus, the world eater, but until some kind of deal can be worked out with 20th Century Fox over the Fantastic Four rights, that will remain a dream. Fortunately, there are plenty of other options available.

Secret Wars

There are three primary Marvel events to use the Secret Wars name: the one from 1984-1985, the sequel that followed soon after, and the one from 2015 which changed the Marvel universe as we know it, literally! That 2015 event is the one we specifically have our eye on for cinematic adaptation. Think about it, after Thanos has put the entire universe at risk, how do you raise the stakes from there? Introduce other alternate universes, a concept which has already been established in Doctor Strange. We don't expect a 100% faithful adaptation of the Secret Wars miniseries (in fact, that's impossible since Marvel can't use Doctor Doom), but it would be interesting to see the main MCU suddenly find itself opened to other realities that are filled with alternate versions of characters we know and love. That said, should this storyline last across one Phase or several, having Battleworld be the endgame would make for a great conclusion.